LECCE, DIocese of. – Suffragan of Otranto; the city of Lecce is also the provincial capital in the Salentine peninsula. It is the heir of the ancient Iapygian city of Lupiae; politically and ecclesiastically dependent on Byzantium until the Norman conquest, it eventually came under the Kingdom of Naples.
The cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption. Currently, it has 164,000 inhabitants, of whom 163,000 are Catholics, distributed across 39 parishes, served by 180 diocesan priests and 90 regular clergy; 10 male religious communities and 50 female ones: 2 male educational institutes, 3 female ones, and 36 charitable institutes.
HISTORY. — Criticism has demolished the arguments of ancient historians regarding the first hypothetical bishops of this diocese. Lecce (Aletium-Lupiae-Lycia), however, can boast the ancient origin of its episcopal see, because among the bishops who subscribed to the Constitutum of Pope Vigilius on the Three Chapters (553) appears a certain Venantius, bishop of Lecce. At the end of the same century, the see was vacant, as evidenced by a letter from Gregory the Great (596), in which he orders Peter, bishop of Otranto, to oversee the postulatio of
LECCE, DIocese of – Cathedral. Façade from the 18th century. Bell tower, work of G. Zimbalo.
Lecce, diocese of – Small church known as the “dei Veneziani” (16th century with later modifications) – Lecce.